Disclaimer: This is edited MTL. Do forgive any grammar mistakes as they are my own and not the author’s. I may add some of my own words for clarity sake, but I will try not to change the meaning of the whole sentence. When the author uses 成语 / Cheng Yu, which is something like idiom-like phrases, I may just translate them in simple English if they are not very meaningful. Otherwise, I will add a translation note. An example would be ‘不三不四’, I would most likely translate it as ‘dubious’ depending on the context.

Previously I translated 地雷/Di Lei in the author’s notes to Earthquakes in Chapter 22 but I’ve corrected it to Landmines.

Also, I have a new editor/proofreader Clear, who has kindly helped me to improve this chapter. Thank you very much. (:

Important to read this before reading this chapter, 做人/Zuo Ren/Literally being a person in Chinese generally means that you should be reasonable and behave with proper conduct e.g. having proper morals, upholding brotherhood values etc.

And some bad news at the end.

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Yan Ke opened his eyes indignantly, and while staring at the man who only left him with a view of his back, he shouted in a hoarse voice: “Meng You, can you fucking be more like a person?!”

[T/N: Basically Yan Ke means that Meng You should have kept his promise and given him the divorce letter.]

Meng You’s voice travelled from the courtyard with a hint of laughter in it: “You don’t deserve this Lord being a person. When this Lord spoke nicely to you, you didn’t listen and had to be stubborn instead.”

Yan Ke: “……”

Yan Ke laughed angrily, but considering the people in his room, he didn’t continue to quarrel with Meng You through the walls. But now he knew one thing, it turned out that this volatile Prince was not only volatile, he was also shameless.

On Meng You’s end, he walked out of the Crown Prince’s Manor. As soon as he went up the city gate tower, he saw a frowning Tang Qi standing above the walls.

Seeing Meng You arrive, he welcomed him.

Tang Qi: “Should we adjust the defence in this area? If our weak points were really attacked, we may not be able to hold them off.”

Meng You: “Did any of the scouts return with information on the location of Chu Kingdom’s army?”

Tang Qi shook his head: “Our scouts have yet to return, they probably haven’t found their location yet.”

Meng You nodded and pondered over his words for a while.

Su Yu must have brought his army over before letting Yan Ke steal the city defence map. If he stole the city defence map first and then ran all the way back to Chu Kingdom to gather his troops, it would be too late.

Consequently, which place outside the capital of the Moon Kingdom was big enough to accommodate an army that can remain undiscovered?

Meng You’s fingers were slightly bent while his hand, which rested on the wall that was half his height, tapped on it continuously.

It seems……

There really was such a place!

Jie Ling—— that place has been occupied by bandits for a long time, and even their gang has already been formed. Because of the large number of bandits in the area and the court being busy dealing with various other matters, the situation was left as it was. 

[T/N: Jie Ling can be translated to Boundary Ridge but I suspect it may also be the name of an existing place in history.]

They ended up leaving the situation unattended for three whole years. And over the past three years, many merchants and passers-by, who had experienced countless losses due to the bandits, have started avoiding that road to make a detour.

The place was desolate, and except for the nest of bandits, there were no commoners there, much less any officials or soldiers, and the place was also big. Except for Jie Ling, Meng You couldn’t think of anywhere else where the army could hide.

Meng You looked at Tang Qi: “Did you get anyone to scout Jie Ling?”

Tang Qi shook his head: “That place is just a bandit’s nest, why there?”

Meng You: “It may not necessarily be just a bandit’s nest now.”

He stretched his wrists and looked in the direction of Jie Ling, saying: “If this Lord’s guess is correct, the attack may happen tonight. Let our brothers in arms make preparations to welcome our ‘guests’.”

Tang Qi worked beside the emperor. He had seen a lot of assassins, but he had never been on the battlefield, which is why he couldn’t keep up with Meng You’s thinking at the moment: “Huh?” 

Meng You: “Just continue with your usual routine, this Lord will return first.” 

Tang Qi: “No, but you just said that the attack will probably happen tonight, what are you going to do when you go back?”

Meng You: “Sleep.”

Meng You yawned suitably, and looked at Tang Qi with some fatigue.

Tang Qi stifled his laughter: “The Crown Princess’s body is weak, I can understand your desire for revenge, but if he was killed in bed and the news spreads out, who would dare to let their daughter marry you?”

Meng You: “If this Lord remembers correctly, then at that time, Meng Han didn’t throw you into a manure pit, right?”

Tang Qi: “He didn’t~”

Meng You tsk-ed twice: “Then why is your head filled entirely with it?”

[T/N: Not sure it translates well but he’s asking why is his head filled with shit/dirty things? Think dirty-minded.]

Before Tang Qi even had the time to retort, he heard a burst of laughter from beside him, and the familiar sound made his hair stand on its end.

Meng Han: “Hmph, did you think my brother was a good person? Look at your unambitious appearance.”

[T/N: 没出息/Mei Chu Xi literally means no ambition but it’s an insult that means that the person didn’t accomplish anything.]

Tang Qi immediately withdrew behind Meng You’s back while keeping his eyes on Meng Han.

He was really scared of this ancestor.

[T/N: Ancestor is a word that is difficult to explain but I will give a rough interpretation, I may be wrong though. In Chinese culture, respecting your elders is very important. So an ancestor has to be respected and hence you should give in/do many things for them. Calling someone an ancestor is a slang that means something like somehow you need to do/or are doing a lot of things for that person.]

Meng You pulled his sleeve away from Tang Qi’s grasp: “Don’t tug at my clothes.”

Meng Han looked at Tang Qi who was basically hugging Meng You’s thigh and scheming to escape with him. With a sneer, he called his guards to detain him.

Tang Qi screamed at Meng You’s cold departing back: “Meng You! Can you be more like a person! We’ve been bros for so many years.” 

Meng Han also glanced at Meng You and voiced in his heart: Brother, please don’t act like a person.

Meng You, who had heard this sentence twice in a day, pondered over it and concluded that he really was acting like a proper person, which is why when Tang Qi fell in a danger zone, he decided not to add salt to his wound and make the situation worse for him. 

Meng You simply turned around and gave a cold stare to Meng Han. 

When he looked at him, Meng Han’s face turned stiff and he prepared himself to release Tang Qi.

However, Meng You lightly said: “Don’t torture him till he dies, this Lord still lacks people to charge into the enemy lines.”

Hearing this sentence, Meng Han dragged Tang Qi back and happily said: “Thank you brother!”

Tang Qi‘s heart was dead: “Meng Shu Li, don’t say anything more, we can no longer be brothers. I won’t say much but I will just give you one line, may you never be able to ‘stand’.”

[T/N: So turns out that ‘You’ is his given name instead of ‘Meng You’. Meng is his family name and Shu Li is his courtesy name.]

Meng You sneered: “Forget it, you can torture him to death. There are many people willing to rush into danger for this Lord, this Lord doesn’t need this one.”

Meng Han became even happier: “Great!”

When Meng You came down from the tower, he heard Tang Qi screaming like a pig being slaughtered.

He went back to the manor, intending to sleep in his room and regain his energy.

On the other side, exactly as Meng You suspected, Su Yu was indeed hiding in Jie Ling.

After putting in tremendous effort to tear down the nest of bandits on this mountain, Su Yu claimed the territory and used it as a temporary shelter for his troops in the Yue Kingdom.

Su Yu observed the city defence map for a while, it was probably because he strongly believed in Yan Ke’s feelings for himself that he was certain of the legitimacy of this map.

“We will begin our attack from the north of the Yue Kingdom’s capital. The defence there is weak because it is away from the kingdom palace, and it is also close to our current location. Their military support will need time to come over.”

The lieutenant general next to Su Yu looked at the city defence map spread by him on the table, and an image of Yan Ke’s recoiling appearance of not daring to see anyone appeared in his head.

The lieutenant general had his own share of doubts: “General, don’t you want to get people to investigate the authenticity of the city defense map first?”

Su Yu smirked with a complacent expression.

Su Yu: “No need, his highness wouldn’t give a fake map to me.”

The lieutenant general noticed that Su Yu was confident, and he didn’t continue to question him anymore. He proceeded to inform their army that they would attack the city tonight.

At noon, the sun was still hanging above the sky, but as dusk approached, the sun was blocked fully by dark clouds.

The gloomy weather enveloped everything, and even the street vendors packed up early to go home. Tang Qi fortunately managed to keep his life from Meng Han’s hands, standing above the city gate tower, his heart was unable to remain calm and he immediately got someone to call for Meng You .

“Inform Tang Qi to gather some soldiers and have them standby at the north gate.” Meng You, who was getting dressed after he got out of bed, calmly instructed the soldier who arrived to call for him.

“Yes.”

The steward called people to serve dinner, and looked anxiously at Meng You: “It is said that after eating home cooked food, you would return the same as when you leave. My Lord, you slept all day today, please have some food.”

[T/N: I didn’t manage to find any saying/superstition for this but I suppose the author means that there is a superstition that eating your family’s food before going out can help you return in the same state that you left.]

Meng You froze for a moment before picking up his chopsticks.

“How can there be such a saying? This kind of superstition is a taboo to those who are marching to war, instead of believing in the heavens, you might as well believe in yourself.” 

Nevertheless, the steward still urged him: “Then at least take a few bites to pad your stomach.”

Meng You nodded.

“Yan Ke……watch over him more, that sickly person is very precious, if there’s any good herbs in the manor then give it to the imperial physician, this Lord doesn’t have any use for them anyway”

[T/N: Author used 娇贵/Jiao Gui, which roughly means precious with the implication of not being able to take sufferings but it doesn’t really translate well. It’s not a romantic word as it is generally used to describe a person who was pampered/treasured by their noble parents, it’s not an insult or compliment though. Meng You means to give any good herbs to the imperial physician so that the imperial physician can either be more motivated to take better care of Yan Ke or use the good herbs on Yan Ke if suitable.]

Steward: “Yes.”

Meng You: “If it is really as he said, this Lord will spread the news and will definitely not allow him to be unjustly accused.”

The steward continued to nod his head and said: “Then what if…it wasn’t as what the Crown Princess said?“

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Author has something to say:

Meng You: I‘m cheap so I exist.

Thank you little angels for nurturing me with nutrient solutions.

[T/N: Nutrient solutions are also gifts that can push the author up in rating in JJWXC.]

Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard! ^_^

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In the ”author has something to say“, author used 我贱顾我在/Wo Jian Gu Wo Zai. It literally means, “I’m cheap therefore I exist”. This saying is an adaptation of 我思故我在/Wo Si Gu Wo Zai which means “I think, therefore I exist”, which was said by René Descartes. The original saying means something like because I can think, so it means I exist. But the meaning has now changed to because I’m cheap/thick-skinned, so I can survive. Haha this is referring to how Meng You is not acting like a human being in this chapter.